Whatsoever
Things Are Trueby Dan CoburnPastor, Emmanuel
Baptist ChurchBeing an ex-logger, at one point in my life I said profoundly: “I’ll
never have to use a computer”. Now I am on it three or four times a day.
I write this article and send it in to Greg at the paper with the click
of a mouse. I hate to admit I would be lost without it. I have a
close friend in Peru on mission, that I correspond with regularly. I have
friends in Africa (also on mission) that I could never keep up with were
it not for the internet. I type and file all of my messages and Bible
studies on this contraption knowing full well, I have no conceptual idea
how it works.
Do you ever think you were born too late? We just go too fast. All
the time. We can scarcely find time to visit with our own family.
When I was a kid, we spent so much time with our families, the fish rule
was always in play. Today we are in just too much of a hurry. Here
it is coming up on tax time, and some of us will use Quicken. When we want
to make a call, we use Sprint. We send things Federal Express. We
eat Fast food and Minute Rice, diet with Slim Fast, and our cocoa is Nestles
Quick. We take our cars to Minute Lube, our cloths to One Hour Cleaners,
and our pictures to One Hour Photo. At the hotel, we have Express Check
In, while our rental car is Express Check Out. And finally, when we want
to relax in the pool, we put on a — Speedo. (Now there’s a picture).
I think maybe we run so hard because we have bought into the World
Strategy, which we will call “the Limited Strategy”. It tells us
we can have it all, but what confounds me is the World definition of “it
all”. Somehow, we are told, we deserve the perfect marriage, the
perfect job, the perfect boss? - the perfect children, etc etc. Fasten
your Pew Belt; Nothing is perfect. Your life is just like a pregnancy.
85% of the time, it’s smooth sailing, wind in your face, great. But
15% is absolute terror, with a healthy portion of “that’s not fair” heartache
stirred in. God’s Strategy, on the other hand, is the “Unlimited
Strategy”. In Christ, we have been given what Ephesians chapter 1
calls: “Every Spiritual Blessing”. Ponder that for a moment, and
I will quote one of my favorite theologians, Denis the Menace. After
exiting her house, Denice and a friend receive a hand full of cookies from
Mrs. Wilson. The friend says: “Mrs. Wilson must think we are really
good. Just look at the cookies she gave us”. Denice replies: “She didn’t
give them to us cause she thinks we are good, she gave them to us cause
She’s good”.
Spiritual Switch. That’s just the way it is with God. “I, even
I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own name sake, and
will remember them no more”. You see, He does it because He is good.
God Bless.